Prevalence and factors associated with neonatal hypothermia on admission to neonatal intensive care units in Southwest Ethiopia – A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction Neonatal hypothermia is one of the main underlying factors associated with neonatal deaths. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and factors associated with neonatal hypothermia on admission to neonatal intensive care units in Southwest Ethiopia. Methods Institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed between February to September 2017 at intensive care units of Arba Minch and Jinka General Hospitals. All neonates admitted to the two neonatal intensive care units during the study period were included in the study. Data were collected by four nurses who were working in the units of the hospitals through semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire and checklist. Multi-variable logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using odds ratio with a confidence interval of 95% and a p-value of 0.05. Results The prevalence of neonatal hypothermia on admission to the neonatal intensive care units in this study area was 50.3%. Admission weight below 2500 gm. (AOR = 3.61, 95% CI: 2.10, 6.18), delay in initiation of breastfeeding (AOR = 2.42, 95% CI: 1.45, 4.02), early bathing (AOR = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.23, 5.63), admissions during cold season (AOR = 1.72, 95% CI: 1.04, 2.84), and presence of obstetrical complication(s) during pregnancy/labor (AOR = 2.46, 95% CI: 1.07, 5.66) were factors significantly associated with hypothermia on admission to the neonatal intensive care units. Conclusions The prevalence of neonatal hypothermia on admission to the intensive care units was high. There is a need to create awareness among the community members about the dangers of early bathing and late initiation of breastfeeding. It is also important to give attention to the newborns of mothers with obstetric complications, low-birth-weight babies and babies delivered during the cold season.

Prevalence of neonatal hypothermia and its associated factors in East Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…1, Table S2, and Table S3). Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the 12 included studies in this systematic review [10,14,18,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] Eight studies were found in Ethiopia [10,18,[23][24][25][26][27][28], 2 in Kenya [29,30], while 2 were from Uganda [14,22]. Nine studies were cross-sectional, while the others used either casecontrol (n = 1) or cohort (n = 2) study design.…”

“…Timely initiation of breastfeeding is considered as initiating breastfeeding within 1 hour after birth. Five studies found a significant association between delayed initiation of breastfeeding and neonatal hypothermia [10,[25][26][27][28]. The odd of neonatal hypothermia among newborns with delayed initiation of breastfeeding range from 1.63 [28] to 4.39 [10] (Table 3).…”

“…Low birth weight was considered when the neonate's birth weight is less than 2.5 kg. Five studies found a significant association between neonate's low birth weight and hypothermia [10,[25][26][27][28]. The odd of neonatal hypothermia among low birth weight neonates range from 1.33 [10] to 8.51 [27] (Table 3).…”

“…Preterm was considered when the delivery is less than 37 weeks of gestational age. Five studies found a significant association between preterm and neonatal hypothermia [10,[25][26][27][28]. The odd of neonatal hypothermia among preterm neonates range from 1.5 [26] to 4.81 [10] (Table 3).…”

A multicentre study on admission hypothermia in very low-birth weight preterm infants in China: distribution, causes and risk factors

“…To reduce the rates of these complications, many clinical studies have suggested various measures to prevent hypothermia, including plastic wrapping without drying [12,13,14], the use of incubators [15], and the use of chemical mattresses [16]. Despite [10,17].…”